September 2012 - Wilberforce Academy

 Volume 4, Number 2 (September 2012) Training students to be redemptive change agents in their home societies China and Indonesia Next Stops in Follow-­‐Up Effort “By God’s grace, we train redemptive change agents here in America, but it’s essential that we encourage and advise them after they return,” said Dr. Bob Osburn, the Academy’s founder recently. Since the Academy was founded in 2009, Dr. Osburn has taken six overseas trips where he has followed with international students whom he has mentored over the years. “I believe that, at its most fundamental, a Christian vision for rural development is about the restoration of our humanness,” he says. “Sin has deformed, diminished, and deranged our seven God-­‐given capacities to achieve our dual purpose which is clearly implied in Genesis 1:26-­‐28: to steward the environment and build society. When a person comes to Christ they gain a new desire to fulfill those dual purposes.” As it works to mentor international students and scholars who study in North America, primarily in Minneapolis-­‐area schools, this idea remains fundamental to the Academy’s vision for the development of persons and their societies. Indonesia, a vast archipelago in the southwest Pacific, will be the next addition to his overseas trips. In November, he visits several returnees there, including Rev. Isak Surya who came a year ago to the Academy for intensive study of the Christian worldview. His brother, Dr. Yohannes Surya, a graduate of a US university, has founded a school where some of Indonesia's poorest students have been trained in advanced mathematics. Recently, Dr. Osburn was a speaker at a conference, organized in part by Academy board member Rinto Dasuki. 40 Indonesian students and ex-­‐students gathered in Chicago to investigate how to bring Christ-­‐
honoring transformation to Indonesia’s rural poor (constituting about half the country’s population). Dr. Osburn gave four lectures, including two focused on a Christian approach to rural transformation. “You can evaluate an institution by the degree to which it promotes the seven capacities-­‐-­‐-­‐productivity, responsibility, creativity, morality, rationality, sociality, and capacity to believe in God-­‐-­‐-­‐ that each of us has as image-­‐bearers of God,” said Osburn. “Part of preparing redemptive change agents involves cultivating these God-­‐given capacities.” As Dr. Osburn visits Chinese and Indonesian returnees this fall his focus remains the same: cultivating these developing leaders as agents for Christ-­‐honoring change. Wilberforce Academy • PO Box 130551, St. Paul, MN 55113 • Phone 651.402.2600 • www.wilberforceacademy.org Integrity and International Mentees Recently, several friends visited one of our mentees who has returned home and has become the dean of a program in his large university overseas. He told my friends that, having become a Christian in the USA, he had made four decisions: 1. He will not accept bribes for grants or entrance to his programs. 2. He will not skim money from the appropriation given to his academic unit. 3. He will treat others with dignity and respect, not heavy-­‐handedly. 4. He will treat his wife lovingly, making time for real communication. We tell our students that their professional life is a product of character, qualifications and calling. Only the second is addressed in our universities, but all three are needed in the real world. that end, last Winter, the Academy sponsored an overnight retreat To Christ Conquers the Culture of Corruption at the home of Dr. Andrew and Kris Engel. Two of the 11 participating students led a follow-­‐up conference in Chicago this past April. Next March we’ll sponsor a second overnight retreat on the same topic because, time after time, we discover that international students and scholars are deeply concerned about the lack of integrity and levels of corruption in their societies. International Student Ministry Global Consultation Dr. Osburn, the Academy’s executive director, will join up to 60 other leaders from around the globe in mid-­‐November for an intense 48-­‐hour (with time for sleep and meals!) conversation focused on broadening and deepening the effort to reach out to the four million plus international students and scholars studying around the globe. Osburn has worked as a member of the planning team organizing this consultation, which is sponsored by the Association of Christians Ministering among Internationals (ACMI) and which will be held in Chicago. A godly University of Minnesota professor and his wife, who pastors an evangelical church for international students in Minneapolis, will be among the 60 participants. “There is great potential for a major increase in the effectiveness of global efforts to introduce internationals to Christ, as well as to disciple and train them for leadership,” said Osburn. Following the consultation, Dr. Osburn will spend several more days in Chicago for board meetings with the Consortium of Christian Study Centers. Lore Bieen I’ve psum Thinking… For all of my optimism about Dolor sit amen, consectetur the potential of international adipisicing elit, sed do students-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐“the cream of the eiusmod tempor incididunt ut crop,” we often call them-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐
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nim id Jesus’ Second Coming. est laborum. In fact, a good dose of I Timothy 3 is enough to splash cold water on pollyannaish dreams: “”In the last days there will come times of difficulty” (v. 1). Our job, nevertheless, is like that of 28 year-­‐old William Wilberforce whose late 18th century England seemed hopelessly evil. We train our students to “flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness…” (I Tim. 2:22). We also train them to think in deeply Christian ways (as did Wilberforce) about their social responsibilities. By all accounts, England was a much better place by mid 19th century. Thank Wilberforce. Are we training future Wilberforces for the nations? -­‐-­‐-­‐Bob Osburn Wilberforce Academy • PO Box 130551, St. Paul, MN 55113 • Phone 651.402.2600 • www.wilberforceacademy.org